Shilpa Shetty, the Bollywood actress born on 8th June 1975 is the firstborn of Surendra Shetty and Sunanda Shetty in Tamilnadu, India. Her pet name is 'Silly Pooh'. Her sister's name is Shamita Shetty. Shilpa Shetty is 5'10" tall. She is a Commerce graduate from Mumbai with Diploma in Fashion Design from SNDT. She can speak easily in several languages viz. English, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Telugu, Tamil, Tulu and basic French.

She began her career as a model with Limca. She made her debut in Bollywood in 1993 in Baazigar alongside Shahrukh Khan and Kajol, which was a big sensation. She co-starred with Akshay Kumar in Main Khiladi Tu Anari (1994). In 1995 she performed with Saif Ali Khan, Govinda and Madhu in Hathkadi which was a flop. Having co-starred again with Akshay Kumar (with whom she had a relationship) and Sunil Shetty in Dhadkan (2000), she caught public attention.

She has been awarded a Filmfare Award for the Best Supporting Actress including nominations for Best Comedian for the movie Rishtey (2002). Till date, she has acted in about 50 films. Shilpa gained international recognition after the controversial incident on Celebrity Big Brother where racist comments were fired at her by her white inmates at the show and the row was aired by the media.

She managed to forgive her rivals, but the issue resulted in her winning the contest; she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the Leeds Metropolitan University for her "dignity and poise" during the show. She is now happily married to Raj Kundra, an NRI businessman in South London.